CASH...USE IT OR LOSE IT!

FRIGHTENING PEOPLE INTO USING PLASTIC. FBI:PAYING CASH FOR A CUP OF COFFEE A "POTENTIAL INDICATOR OF TERRORIST ACTIVITY"

An FBI advisory aimed at Internet Cafe owners instructs businesses to report people who regularly use cash to pay for their coffee as potential terrorists. The flyer, issued under the FBI’s Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program, lists examples of “suspicious activity” and then encourages businesses to gather information about individuals and report them to the authorities. READ MORE

Recently, India has launched a nationwide program involving the allocation of a Unique Identification Number (UID) to every single one of its 1.2 billion residents. Each of the numbers will be tied to the biometric data of the recipient using three different forms of information – fingerprints, iris scans, and pictures of the face. All ten digits of the hand will be recorded, and both eyes will be scanned. READ MORE

DHS ADVISING SUSPICION OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T USE CREDIT CARDS

CASH TRANSACTIONS BANNED BY LOUISIANNA'This summer, the State Legislature and Governor of Louisiana passed a law that bans individuals and businesses from transacting in cash if they are considered a "secondhand dealer". House Bill 195 of the 2011 Regular Session (Act 389) broadly defines a secondhand dealer to include "... Anyone, other than a non-profit entity, who buys, sells, trades in or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a non-profit entity, shall be deemed as being in the business of a secondhand dealer. " READ MORE

For individuals, cash clears at par: if you give me a $100 bill, then I’m $100 richer and you’re $100 poorer. No one’s going to jump in and charge a fee for facilitating the transaction. And if I then deposit the $100 bill into my checking account, once again I see the full amount appear on my statement.

But the fact that most people never get charged for cash transactions is corrosive, in its own way: it helps to impede the inevitable-yet-glacial move away from cash and towards more secure, easier, and cheaper forms of payments.READ MORE

YOUR WALLET WILL BE OBSOLETE BY 2015: PAYPAL

Internet money transfer company PayPal has just hit its 100 million active accounts milestone, and with it, the company is predicting that mobile payments will supersede physical wallets in the not too distant future.

"Consumers are increasingly giving up traditional payment methods such as cash and checks and turning to a more modern - and anytime, anywhere - form of payment," said PayPal president Scott Thompson in a June 29 post on the company's blog.

"We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. - from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet," he added. READ MORE

BANK TRANSFER DAY

The social uprising — called "Bank Transfer Day" — encourages bank customers to take their cash out of big banks and put it in smaller banks and credit unions instead. The movement is ostensibly in response to aggressive fees institutions are rolling out to recover profits lost from new financial regulations, notably Bank of America's (BAC - News) decision to stick debit card users with a $5 monthly fee and Wells Fargo's (WFC - News) $3 test of the same. READ MORE